Hello,

In the iEARN network, Arabic conversations and project work is the most
active of any non-English language forums.  We will be working with local
school districts in the US to enhance or create new Arabic language programs
and physical exchanges in 2007-2008.

Ed



On 8/30/06 3:21 PM, "J Cravens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Helmi Noman is researching the demographics and usage patterns of
> Arab Internet users, Arabic Web content, Internet Law, and the
> perception of Web Credibility among Arab Internet users. On the
> Development Gateway email update today was this highlighted resource
> from his web site, and I thought at least some on the Digital Divide
> Network would find this interesting and/or helpful:
> 
> http://www.helmionline.com/internet/2005/10/web_content.html
> Online forums have rapidly spread as stand-alone web sites in the
> Arab world or as part of larger sites. This study, conducted by Helmi
> Noman between July and September 2005, examined 338 active Arabic
> forums for content quality, quantity, and the technology used to host
> and produce it. According to Noman, the rapid spread of Arabic forums
> can be attributed to the following common characteristics: Easy and
> inexpensive technology, almost all of it powered by vBulletin;
> empowerment, in these unmoderated fora; collaborative forums whose
> subjects are selected by the forum owner; providing a place to "hang
> out"; and encouragement of false identities. Some 27% of forums have
> Islam as a subject; politics and current affairs forums (5%); stock
> market forums (11%); education forums (1%); science forums (1%); and
> computer forums (17%). Forums in this last category constitute a
> large virtual information technology academy where professional
> computers experts get sophisticated assistance from their peers and
> where amateur programmers learn how to develop their skills. This
> article, posted on Noman's website, contains graphs and charts
> measuring Arab Internet fora.

-- 
IEARN-USA - Connecting Youth Making A difference with Technology
  http://us.iearn.org



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